A man and his wife, who are proprietors of a struggling window-covering business, agree to install curtains in an exclusive club patronized by a wealthy friend of theirs. After completing the job, the shop owner has great difficulty collecting payment for the job. His "friend" becomes scarce and Spall finds he has no legal foot to stand on since there is no written record of the informal transaction. With the couple's business floundering due to mounting debts, and their former friend's crass attitude towards their predicament, anger and frustration reach the boiling point.

The story of a retired man who decides to fulfil his life-long ambition of walking from one end of Britain to the other.